The Yellow Hunchback — Fergus Hume

On a snowy December night, shortly after Christmas, the inhabitants of Chadston village are gathered in the Hall to enjoy a display of animated pictures. All, that is, except Alice Marvel, who is startled by an unexpected visitor -- her old friend the dwarf Evan Berrow, who has come to renew his proposal of marriage. Already engaged to the handsome Rupert Treffry, Alice rejects the proposal. Later that evening, however, venturing into the snow to meet her father, Alice is stunned by a grisly discovery -- Evan's dead body, lying in a winding sheet of snow...

Faced with the possibility that her lover may be hanged for the crime, Alice undertakes to discover the murderer. The reading of Evan's will seems to offer several possible motives and no shortage of suspects including the crocked solicitor, Mason Clyde; Evan's selfish stepmother; the sinister nurse-companion, Cleopatra; and Evan's Amazonian aunt, Miss Tudor-Stuart. The key to the mystery seems to lie, however, with Evan's cousin -- the yellow-clad hunchback, Ben Berrow.

First published in 1907, this is an Edwardian murder mystery, with a memorable cast of colourful characters!